Posts Tagged ‘NY Immigration Attorney’

Next week the new immigration laws regarding young immigrants will finally be revealed in full. What does this mean for us? Although these laws may help some, the regulations seem to exclude more people than they help. They leave a lot of uncertainty and worry amongst potential applicants as well.

The new laws will be available to those who are in an illegal status at this time, and who entered the US prior to their 16th birthday. Thus, those who were already 16 upon entry are excluded. Unfortunately, we have come across several clients who missed this deadline by a few days or a few weeks. Should a person be excluded from DREAM because they were 16 years old and three weeks when their parents brought them here? It seems a bit of an arbitrary cut-off.

The applicant also has to have lived in the US for at least five years continually with only brief interruptions. The burden will be on the applicant to prove they have been present in the US for at least the last five years. This can be proved by showing medical records, school records, phone bills, or other documentary evidence regarding physical presence in the United States. The rules seemingly indicate that the applicant may have left the US for brief periods of time, yet there is no hard and fast rule as to what will constitute "brief" absences. Will the old "Fleuti" doctrine of 180 days apply? Or will DREAMERS be held to a stricter standard? Hopefully, more concrete guidance will be released next week with respect to the new laws.

Those applying must currently be between the ages of 15 and 30. I have had clients cut off by being both too young or by being too old. It’s a shame that someone who fits all the other requirements can miss benefiting from the law because they turned 30 a few months ago or because they are now 14.

The law will also require applicants to be currently enrolled in a high school program, or completed HS or a GED. They can also be enrolled in college or serving in the military in some instances. We have also come across persons who never finished high school. They had to work to help support their family or to send money back to their family at home. They do not speak English or even know they could attend school here. These persons may too be excluded. Some persons are enrolling in high school now or starting to enroll in local or online GED programs. I bet the organizations that offer GEDs are seeing a sudden boon in enrollees. But will enrollment in a GED program be sufficient to meet the requirements of this law? The law says persons may be "currently enrolled" in high school to qualify. So will such GED programs suffice? It will be interesting to find this out.

What about those who have been arrested? Those with more than one arrest or any "significant" crime may not be eligible for relief under the law. Then what will happen if they choose to apply and are denied? Will they be placed in removal proceedings? Will they be deported? Presumably not. But I am not yet convinced that this will ultimately be the case. Anyone with more than a traffic ticket should be extremely careful of this law and consult an immigration attorney prior to applying.

So what will the new law provide to applicants? Those who "pass" all these tests will get a work permit for two years. With this permit they will be able to get a social security number and renew or obtain a drivers license. This relief will need to be renewed every two years. It does not grant residency or lead to a green card. Spouses are not automatically included. Your children are not necessarily included. The law does not legalize a person or permit them to change status.

The filing free will be $465 total per application. The forms and filing procedures will be released next week. Those already in removal proceedings may also apply with USCIS.

The real question everyone wants to know is whether those who apply are at risk of deportation in case of a change in the administration. While we are told that applicants who are denied relief are not being turned over to ICE for removal, the effects of the law remain to be seen. One USCIS officer in Connecticut actually warned us to tell clients not to apply under the law. What does she know that we do not know? Hopefully she was just being overly cautious. To be continued after the regulations are released next week.

One common cause for Illegal Immigration among immigrants is a fear for one’s own safety based on a reasonable threat from their native country. In this situation, it is possible for an immigrant to be granted what is called political asylum.

In order to help immigrants escape the threat of persecution and oppression, The United States enacted "The Refugee Act"; which states that political asylum may be granted to those who have a well-founded fear that returning to their native country will result in persecution, or violence.

Political Asylum does not apply to those that have committed crimes in their native country and wish to evade justice, but instead was enacted to assist those facing persecution related to race, sex, religion or nationality.

Professional Assistance

Obtaining legal citizenship in The United States can be a daunting task, filled with many legal obstacles. If you or a loved one is seeking assistance from an experienced Immigration attorney in New York, contact Susan B. Henner at (914)358-5200 for a free consultation or more information.

Now that the Supreme Court is upholding the national health care law, it is important that immigrants know how it will effect them. Undocumented immigrants will not be able to participate in the new mandate. However, if you are a legal immigrant with a valid Green card then you are subject to the mandates requirements and must obtain health insurance in 2014.

Immigrants that are in the US via student visas and some work visas are not eligible due to their "nonimmigrant" status and will not be subject to the individual mandate. Documented immigrants must live within the United States for a total of 5 years before they are eligible for Medicaid, with exceptions for asylees and refugees and those who fall within poverty guidelines.

Citizenship

Once the new health care bill is fully implemented, it is estimated that over 30 million US residents will be without health insurance, while 11.5 million of those residents will be undocumented immigrants. That is why it is important to apply for US citizenship. If you or a loved one is seeking assistance from an experienced immigration attorney in the State of New York, contact Susan B. Henner at 1.888.733.0141 for a free consultation or more information.

New York Immigration attorney Susan B. Henner is ready to represent individuals facing a variety of immigration issues such as removal, visa overstay, and deportation.

The highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws is The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). With up to 15 Board Members, including the Chairman and Vice Chairman who share responsibility for BIA management, the BIA decides appeals by conducting a "paper review" of cases.

Generally, the BIA does not conduct courtroom proceedings, but will hear oral arguments of appealed cases on special occasions at its headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. The Law offices of John E. MacDonald Inc,. will assist you in presenting your Immigration Appeals against any decisions rendered by immigration judges regardless of whether you are an alien, a citizen, or a business firm.

How an Immigration Appeal works

The Board of Immigration Appeals generally reviews cases that involve orders of removal (deportation) in addition to applications for relief from removal. The majority of cases are reviewed by a single selected board member, although there are certain types of cases that are handled by special panel of three. Most appeals are the result of:

A need to clarify the meaning of a law or procedure, which will be followed in future cases

An inconsistency between the law and a decision made by an immigration judge or DHS officer.

A nationally relevant or controversial case widely considered to hold national importance

A mistake, or factual error made by an immigration judge

An inconsistency in the rulings between two or more immigration judges

If you wish to Appeal

The most typical of appeals that reach the BIA involve orders of removal and applications for relief from removal, and has standardized the process to some degree. If you or a loved one is an immigrant in the state of New York and are now facing deportation, you have the right to appeal the BIA. Please contact New York Immigration attorney Susan B. Henner today at 1-888-733-0141 or (914) 358-5200. If you wish to contact Susan by email please write to: Susan@sbhenner.com.

By Perry Chiaramonte March 28, 2012 A cruel new email phishing scam preys on visa holders with the phony promise of a green card in return for cash, FoxNews.com has learned.

The emails, under an official-looking U.S. State Department letterhead, tell recipients they are among 50,000 winners drawn at random from more than 12 million entries in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, known more commonly as the green card lottery. But the elaborate emails are just a scheme to bilk money from recipients, authorities confirmed.

“We always advise people that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is,” a spokeswoman for the FBI told FoxNews.com. “We have received complaints about this particular scam that claims to be from the U.S. government. If someone receives these emails unsolicited, they should be treated with a healthy amount of skepticism.”

Ian Jopson, an Australian citizen living in the U.S. with a work visa, received one such email as recently as Monday and figured out quickly that it was a sham.

“The header said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve won!’ I was overwhelmed because I’ve been in the [green card] lottery for years,” said Jopson. For a fleeting moment, he thought it was legitimate. Then he saw a request for nearly $900 in "processing fees," to be sent to an "embassy representative" in London through Western Union.

“It was a red flag," said Jopson, a web designer for FoxNews.com. "It’s general knowledge that Western Union is used for these things."

Another signal that something was amiss was a request that after payment, he send a confirmation message of the transfer to the email address, “lottery[at]usa-green-card-dv-lottery.com.”An email from a U.S. government agency would likely end in ".gov."

Jason Stern, a New York-based attorney who specializes in Internet issues, told FoxNews.com the scam is similar in many ways to the most famous cyber hoax of all.

"The green card lottery scam is really no more sophisticated than your garden-variety Nigerian Bank email phishing scam, except that it specifically targets immigrants — who are particularly vulnerable to a message bearing the official looking seal of the US Department of State," Stern said.

A spokesman for the State Department told FoxNews.com the scam has been making the rounds, prompting the agency to stop sending emails out for the visa lottery altogether. The spokesman said that the government only asks for fees when applicants first apply for visas.

“You actually have to log onto the system to check the status," the spokesman said. "We do this specifically to prevent the issue of fraud.”

MANHATTAN (CN) – The U.S. Office of the Solicitor General may have misled the Supreme Court about resources the government provides wrongly deported immigrants who win their appeals, a federal judge ruled, ordering the disclosure of redacted emails.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff opened his blistering 20-page order with a quotation he attributed to late 19th century political commentator Peter Finley Dunne.

"’Trust everybody, but cut the cards,’ as the old saying goes," the order states. "When the Solicitor General of the United States makes a representation to the Supreme Court, trustworthiness is presumed. Here, however, plaintiffs seek to determine whether one such representation was accurate or whether, as it seems, the Government’s lawyers were engaged in a bit of a shuffle."

In 2009, the Office of the Solicitor General told the high court in a brief that by "policy and practice, the government accords aliens who were removed pending judicial review but then prevailed before the courts effective relief by, inter alia, facilitating the aliens’ return to the United States by parole under § U.S.C. 1182(d) (5) if necessary, and according them the status they had at the time of removal."

The Supreme Court relied on that assurance, made without citation, to hold that deportation did not qualify as "irreparable harm" in the case of Nken v. Holder.

On Dec. 17, 2009, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Immigrant Defense Project, Post-Deportation Human Rights Project and Northeastern University Law Prof. Rachel Rosenbloom challenged the stated policy in a Freedom of Information Act request to six government agencies.

In turn, the Solicitor General’s office produced a "mostly-redacted four-page chain of emails between the attorneys who argued before the Supreme Court in Nken and other government officials," the order states.

On May 12, 2011, the civil libertarians sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Justice and Department of State to lift the redactions from the emails.

On Tuesday, Rakoff ordered the government to produce the emails, which he said seem to refute the government’s claims to the Supreme Court.

"In Nken, the OSG made a new factual representation on appeal and cited nothing in the record to support it," the order states. "Moreover, the Government even now has come forward with nothing of consequence to support its representation beyond the facts set forth in the emails."

Saerom Park, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Courthouse News in a phone interview that the Solicitor General’s assertions had "tremendous consequences."

"We can’t go back and re-litigate that case, but we think it is important to set the record straight," Park said.

By exposing the facts, Park hopes to build pressure to create policies to help deported immigrants that win their appeals.

"Mainly, we are hoping to expose the scope of this problem so that we can let the immigrant advocacy community know, and put pressure on the government to put the policy in place," Park said, adding later, "We hope the Solicitor General won’t make unsupported factual assertions to the Supreme Court anymore."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the ruling or indicate whether it would issue an appeal. The government must lift the redactions by Feb. 13.

Having a bilingual immigration attorney who also possesses extensive knowledge about the Immigration proceedings you may be facing, can be invaluable when you are facing such a life-changing event.

“I have been asked for immigration attorneys in my role in Human Resources and have found that Ms. Henner has always gotten the highest ratings from the people I have referred. The fact that she speaks Spanish has put some of the referrals at ease but the fact that she can answer their questions and help with all their immigrations issues is what they seem to like best!” Anonymous

If you need help with an Immigration matter in NY, contact Susan B. Henner at 1-888-733-0141 and (914) 358-5200, or by email at Susan@sbhenner.com